Coverup
by Sunset-leaf
Summary: A body is found with mysterious 'bite marks' and the team are left wondering...is the murderer a vampire? - AU Gabby fic.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

**Chapter One**

Gibbs walked out onto the familiar floor, the elevator doors shutting cleanly behind him. He was surprised by the lack of the heavy pounding that Abby liked to call music, and instead heard a hurried shuffling from inside Abby's side-room. Intrigued, he entered the lab and watched as he saw her dark ponytails bobbing around agitatedly through the glass window. With three quick strides he was standing in the doorway between the two rooms.

"Abby?"

"Oh, hey, Gibbs," Abby said distractedly, slamming down the lid to a small chest she had on her desk. It was weird, Gibbs couldn't exactly _remember_ the chest but it gave him an odd, familiar feeling inside.

"What you up to?"

"Nothing," Abby said, wiping a sleeve across her mouth and turning to face him, "Why, do we have a case?"

"No, not yet," Gibbs said, still eyeing the chest.

Abby observed this and removed the chest from the tabletop, instead placing it in one of the drawers beneath it.

"Well then, what can I do for you?" she asked, smiling.

Gibbs smiled back, thoughts of the chest erased from his mind. He stared at the dark beauty in front of him. Even at this hour in the morning she still looked stunning. Her lips, a dark ruby red, twisted into a teasing smile, enticing him to take the few steps between the two of them and locks his own with hers. He resisted the temptation, _just,_ and instead brought his eyes up to meet her eyes. The sparkling pools of glistening green stared back at him, the light reflecting off them at such an angle that Gibbs wasn't even sure whether the light was actually reflecting and not just flooding from her eyes instead. Wherever the light was coming from, her eyes were playful. Her whole body seemed intent on arousing some reaction from him, be it emotional or physical.

"Nothing, I was just coming down to see how my Queen of the Lab was doing this morning."

"Oh, Gibbs, that's so sweet! And you called me Queen of the Lab," she beamed, moving forwards and swinging her arms around a happy Gibbs. She held him tight against her body as he wrapped his arms around her.

"Well, you'd hardly be King of the Lab, would you?"

Abby laughed but still hung round his neck, her mouth nestled near his ear. "Oh, Gibbs."

Somewhat reluctantly, Abby slowly detached herself from an equally reluctant Gibbs and stepped backwards, putting distance between the two of them. Far enough away to be respectable, but close enough so that they could touch the other if either of them wanted to.

It was then that Gibbs noticed the necklace hanging from Abby's neck. It had been moved from beneath the safety of Abby's top during the hug and now hung freely on her chest. It was a tiny glass vile within silver casing. A dark red liquid swilled inside the glass as the vile swang from breast to breast. Gibbs could remember having the same feeling he had now, but moments earlier. He hadn't the faintest idea what the feeling had been about then, but now he felt the same towards the vile. It was as if he knew the vile, having seen it on many occasions, yet his mind refused to bring up any of them to view.

Abby watched Gibbs stare at the vile, a peculiar look on her face. She smiled knowingly, enjoying Gibbs fascination with the object. There was no trace of ridicule on her face; in fact, quite the opposite. She seemed in inner conflict herself, half of her wanting to say something, half knowing that she couldn't. She let it swing for a few more seconds before grabbing it with her right hand and returning it out of view. Gibbs immediately looked up.

He smiled and they stared at each other for a second before a buzzing went off at his leg.

"Gibbs!" Abby said, "I didn't know you were _that_ pleased to see me."

Gibbs looked down at the object now in his hand before looking back up at Abby. "We've got a case; I'll be back later."

"With a present…" Abby teased.

"Maybe…" Gibbs smiled and then he was gone, leaving Abby alone in the empty lab.

Gibbs pulled up at the edge of the park and looked out to where he could see his team, already in action. A sense of pride inflated his chest and he smiled; they were already taking the scene as their own, talking to a rather flustered looking policeman. He exited the car, pulling on his NCIS jacket, and walked across the dewy grass, the smile on his face being replaced by a stern look.

"What have we got, DiNozzo?"

"Dead Petty Officer found here this morning by a jogger. We're holding him but don't think he's a suspect," he said nodding his head towards the NCIS van where a man sat in the back, his reflective yellow jacket catching the morning sun. Gibbs looked over to McGee and Ziva.

"No visible cause of death," Ziva said, "except two odd marks on the victim's neck."

"Odd marks?" Gibbs questioned.

"Yes," McGee answered, Ziva looking over at him and nodding in agreement, "They kind of look like _bite marks_."

Gibbs raised an eyebrow and crouched beside Ducky. "What we talking about here, Duck."

"Well," Ducky began, retracting his liver probe, "liver temperature suggests death was over 24 hours ago, yet lividity says otherwise."

Gibbs looked un-encouraged.

"In other words, he is way too cold for the lack of rigor that I'm seeing."

"Well, it was cold last night," McGee offered.

"Not cold enough to affect the cooling rate this much, but we will know more when I get this lad back to autopsy."

"And the marks, Duck?"

"Ah yes; again, Jethro, I don't quite know what to say about them. I've never seen anything like them."

Ducky turned the dead Petty Officer's head to the side and revealed two small puncture wounds on his neck. Gibbs looked down at them before standing up. The flustered policeman from earlier was now walking over to them, having spoken to his superior over the radio. Gibbs looked at him as he went to speak.

"I've spoken to my Boss and I'm to hand the investigation over to you," the policeman said quietly, obviously thinking of something else. He had a look on his face as if he had misplaced his glasses and was constantly hunting for them. Gibbs stared astounded; was this really what the US police force was coming to?

"Well, thank your boss for us," Tony said, grinning.

"I will," the policeman said, complete with the ever-present look of confusion. "I just wish I could remember why this case is important, somehow it seems _familiar_. Like we've had cases like this before…" The policeman wandered off across the grass mumbling to himself, away from the stunned looks of the NCIS team.

"Right, Tony, pictures; McGee, bag and tag, and Ziva, see if you can find any other witnesses; you jog in this park don't you?"

Ziva nodded and started to walk over to the crowd of various joggers accumulating around the edge of the crime scene. Gibbs walked away from where his team were working and wandered in between some nearby bushes. Something caught his eye and he crouched down. He brushed his hand through the wet grass and picked up a small silver and glass object. It was a small glass vile with a scarlet liquid swilling around inside it, attached to a silver chain. Gibbs looked down at it lying on his palm and tensed. Why did this object seem so _familiar_? Did he know anyone with the same necklace, someone from his past maybe, an ex-wife? He shook his head in annoyance and pulled out a plastic bag from his jacket pocket. He slipped the mysterious necklace into the plastic wallet and sealed it. For some reason he chose not to take it over to be collated with the rest of the evidence and instead re-pocketed it within the folds of his jacket. Slightly confused as to why he had just pocketed it, he stood up and walked over to join his team, his hand running over the imprint of the object resting in his pocket.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two Chapter Two

Gibbs walked into the lab, a Caf-Pow clenched firmly behind his back. He crept slowly up behind Abby and hesitated before bringing out the Caf-Pow, enjoying the closeness of her body. He raised the arm that held the Caf-Pow and manoeuvred it around her, holding it in front her for her to see.

"Oh, Gibbs! You did bring a present for me!" Abby smiled, grabbing the Caf-Pow and turning around to face Gibbs, their faces inches from each other.

"I also brought something else, Abby."

"Gibbs…" Abby said her lips curling into a broad smile that reached her eyes.

"No, something _else_," Gibbs said calmly, smiling back. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small necklace he had retrieved from the ground in the park. He held it out for Abby to see and watched as her eyes tightened. "Do you know what this is?"

"No," Abby answered slowly, "Where did you get it?"

"I picked it up from the crime scene."

"Then why isn't it with all the other evidence?"

"I don't really know why, I just _knew_ that I had to show you it first," Gibbs said, confused.

"Your gut?" Abby suggested.

"Maybe…" Gibbs muttered, unconvinced.

"Let me hold on to it for a couple of hours, I'll see what I can dig up on it," Abby said moving her hand forwards to collect the necklace. Gibbs shut his hand quickly, as if by reflex, before slowly opening it back up again and allowing Abby to take the necklace.

"There's something about that necklace that I can't quite work out," Gibbs said. "It's as if I have seen it before, but I can't place where."

"I'm sure it will come to you," Abby said, turning and placing the necklace out of view. Gibbs seemed to brighten up immediately, his face cracking into a soft smile.

"What will come to me?"

"The reason why I have earned another Caf-Pow," Abby tried, a pleading laugh echoing from her lips.

Gibbs laughed before turning and leaving the lab.

"We'll see, Abbs…"

"What we got, Duck?" Gibbs said, stepping foot onto the autopsy floor.

"Ah, Jethro. Right on time, as always."

"Duck?"

"It's worse than I thought, Jethro. When I first saw the poor Petty Officer, I noticed that he was looking rather pale and that a loss of blood may have caused the lower temperature of the body. That theory is only slightly hindered by the fact that the only bodily wounds the Petty Officer had suffered were the two small marks on his neck."

"And…"

"And, I was half right. Loss of blood was certainly the reason behind the abnormal temperature, a loss of _all_ his blood."

"All of it?" Gibbs said shocked.

"I have searched the entire of the Petty Officer's arterial and venial cavities and there is not a drop to be found."

"How is that possible, Duck?"

"Put quite simply, it's not. It's possible to drain a body of blood of course, but it is quite impossible to remove all traces of the stuff."

"Then how do you explain it?"

"I can't. Never in my experience have I seen such a thing. There was this time once where a young man had been ripped into in a parachuting accident. Nasty way to go, and he lost a lot of blood; there was less than a pint left in him by the time I received him. Of course, there was the other time when there was another poor young man was involved in an accident at a meat factory…"

"Ducky?" Gibbs said calmly, "Do you have a new time of death for me?"

"No more than 6 hours ago," he replied.

"Thanks, Duck." Gibbs said, leaving the autopsy room behind to mutterings of a conveyor belt and a mincing machine.

Gibbs entered the lab, both hands free from Caf-Pow, to see Abby twirling herself round on her chair.

"No Caf-Pow, Gibbs?" Abby said, pulling a face.

"Not this time, Abbs," Gibbs said looking up at the screen. Where he expected to see some sort of database search or mass spec reading, there was instead a blank screen. "No evidence for me, Abbs?"

"Not this time, Gibbs," Abby said pouting. "The only evidence I received was a saliva trace that Ducky pulled from the bite marks on the Petty Officers neck. I ran through the usual databases and pulled nothing. Our vampire has no criminal record, and I can't find a match to the DNA anywhere; all I kept getting was 'no matches found'."

"Vampire?"

"Yeah, Gibbs," Abby said starting to get excited, "Bite marks on the neck, all the blood drained from him. It's got to be a vampire."

"Vampires aren't real, Abby."

"How do you know? Do you have any proof?"

"Do you?"

"You have to admit, it's at least a little hinky."

"It's a lot hinky, but it doesn't mean it's a vampire."

"But what if it was, Gibbs? What if we have a real life vampire on our hands!" Abby said, her eyes lighting up at the thought.

"Then I suggest cloves of garlic and silver bullets."

"Silver bullets are werewolves, Gibbs."

"Same thing."

"I think I'm going to have to give you a crash course in all things hinky, Gibbs. You're knowledge of the supernatural is way below average."

"Haven't got time now, Abbs. I have actual evidence to collect."

"Well, when you're done with your 'actual evidence', you know where I am." Abby smiled.

Gibbs smiled and left the lab. Abby turned and picked up the remote on her desk, pressing a button. The blank screen of the large plasma hanging on the wall lit up and a green light flashed across the screen.

'Positive Match'


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three Chapter Three

Gibbs was quiet when he stepped out the elevator, his thoughts running wild with visions of vampires and werewolves. Could they possibly have a vampire on their hands?

Gibbs watched as Tony had his back to him, leaning over the miniature wall by Ziva's desk. "Of course vampires are real, Zi-va; don't you have Halloween in Israel?"

"Of course we have Halloween, Tony. But it's just little kids running around in stupid costumes."

"Did you ever celebrate Halloween, Probie?" Tony asked, turning his attention to McGee.

"I didn't. My sister did, though. The costumes of the bigger kids always scared me."

"What about you, Ziva?" Tony said, flicking his gaze towards her.

"I didn't need plastic masks and capes to scare me, Tony. And I don't see the fun in being scared."

"I was never scared," Tony said puffing his chest, "even when there was this one kid who…"

"Boo!" Gibbs said loudly from behind Tony. Tony went to jump forwards but was stopped by the miniature wall he was leaning on. Instead he ended up leaning over it, winding himself as he scrambled to right himself.

"Gibbs, I didn't know you were there," he said, rubbing his stomach.

"You weren't scared were you, DiNozzo?"

"Er, no. It takes a lot to scare Tony DiNozzo."

"What you got for me?" Gibbs said, sitting down at his desk.

The team stayed silent except for the sound of Tony forcing himself down heavily behind his desk.

"Nothing?" Gibbs said, eyebrows raised; usually they had at least something to tell him.

"Nothing," McGee repeated nervously, "we found nothing at the scene."

"And there were no witnesses," Ziva added.

"No security footage, no footprints or tracks, no nothing."

"You mean to tell me that my team has spent the last 4 hours of the day, finding _nothing_ that helps with the case."

The three of them nodded slowly, unwilling to admit their failure. They were saved by the bell as the phone in front of Gibbs rang. Still staring at the rest of the team, he picked up the receiver and put it to his ear.

"Gibbs…ok…we'll be down now."

The team looked at Gibbs anxiously.

"Ducky's found something, let's go."

The team jumped up, eager to move on from the humiliation of their failure, and moved towards the exit of the bullpen. Just as Tony was about to move between the two miniature walls, Ziva jumped forwards, her face coming close to his.

"Boo!"

Tony stepped back, taken by surprise. Before scowling and following Ziva to the elevator. Ziva laughed loudly as she walked and McGee smiled from behind Tony.

"Ziva scared Tony," he said in a childish tone, enjoying the look on Tony's face.

"Did not."

"Did to."

"Did not."

"Did to."

"Did not."

"Did to."

SMACK

The doors of the elevator closed on a smiling Gibbs, standing behind his two male agents, each of them rubbing the backs of their heads; Ziva laughed loudly in the corner.

The team walked out onto the Autopsy floor expecting to see Ducky poured over the Petty Officer's body, but instead they were surprised by an empty room.

"Ducky?" Gibbs spoke into the odd silence.

"Over here, Jethro," came the reply from the corner of the room. The team looked over to where Ducky was sat at his computer staring at the flashing screen. They walked over and surrounded him as they took in what Ducky had on his computer screen.

"What you got for us, Duck?" Gibbs said.

"While you were away, I managed to find a small amount of skin under the Petty Officers nails. Not much, but enough to do a DNA trace. I sent Palmer up to Abby with it but he couldn't find her."

"Couldn't find her?" Gibbs repeated.

"No."

"Well, where is she?" Tony asked.

"I have absolutely no idea. Palmer was able to run the trace himself, with a bit of coaxing from me; he was a bit nervous about using Abby's equipment…"

"I don't want to be there when she finds out," Tony said, shuddering.

"Why?" Ziva asked. "Scared, Tony?"

"No, it's not that…it's just…Ow!"

"What did Palmer come up with?" Gibbs asked, lowering his palm from the back of Tony's head.

"He found a match to a young man called Matthew Peskins; just turned 17 last month. I've got his address here," Ducky added motioning towards the sheet of paper working its way out of the nearby printer.

"It's good to know that at least _one_ of my team can come up with new leads," Gibbs said, taking the warm piece of paper with the address. The rest of the team followed him, subdued, as he exited the lab and made his way towards the elevator. Ziva pushed past Tony at the last second and jumped into the elevator before him, sticking out her tongue.

"Ziva, you're such a child," Tony said, turning his back to her as he got in the elevator and sidestepped, blocking McGee's way.

"Tony…"

"Am I in your way, Probie?" Tony asked innocently, moving to let him past, motioning passage with his arm.

"Thank you."

Gibbs muttered something about 'children' before the doors closed and they made their way towards the car lot.

"Looks like we're too late," Tony said, looking at the door swinging open at the front of the house.

"Ziva, McGee, you take the back. Tony and I will take the front."

Ziva and McGee obeyed orders, moving towards the back of the house. Tony and Gibbs raised their guns, stepping slowly through the open doorway.

"I don't like the look of this," Tony muttered. Gibbs stayed quiet, his hand steady on the gun. He twitched the gun, signing for Tony to take the left side of the door they were now facing. Tony moved quickly as Gibbs took the other side of the door. Gibbs nodded and the two of them burst through the door, guns drawn.

They jumped out into an abandoned kitchen, blood splattered across the room. The smell of iron reached their noses and Tony raised a sleeve to his face.

"Eurgh," he said through a wrinkled nose. Gibbs looked around and spotted the carcass on the island in the middle of the kitchen.

"What is that?" Tony asked disgusted, "lamb?"

"It's a dog," Gibbs said solemnly as he retreated from the room and met with Ziva and McGee.

"Everywhere's clear, Boss." McGee said, craning his neck to peer into the kitchen where Tony was still staring at the mutilated animal. "What the…?"

Gibbs nodded toward the stairs behind them and they turned and raised their guns. Tony joined them and, Gibbs leading, they moved up to the second floor. Gibbs reached the last step before he felt a sharp pain on the back of his neck and he fell to the ground. His vision blacked over and in the last seconds of consciousness he heard the cries of his teammates as they battled with their assailants.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four Chapter Four

Gibbs opened his eyes groggily and looked up. It was the first thing he saw each morning, the faded white paint that decorated the ceiling of his bedroom. He rubbed his eyes as the events of last night slowly came back to him.

"DiNozzo," Gibbs said loudly, sitting upright, now fully awake. "Ziva, McGee." What had happened to Tony and the others?

He grabbed his cell from the table to the right of his bed and pressed the number for Tony. It was a couple pf seconds before he heard the muffled reply of a newly awake Tony.

"DiNozzo."

"Tony, are you alright? What happened to the others?"

"What do you mean, Gibbs?"

"What the hell do you think I mean, DiNozzo. Last night, did you black out too?"

"Well after watching a repeat of the first Lord of the Rings; I think it was ok for me to…"

"What are you talking about, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked, now getting annoyed.

"You sent us home early, Boss. Seeing as we have no cases at the moment, there was no point in…"

"No cases? What about the Petty Officer with the bite marks…"

"The Petty Officer with the…Gibbs what are you talking about," Tony said laughing, but the concern was evident in his voice. "Are you ok, Gibbs? You haven't inhaled too much sawdust have you…"

"I'm fine, DiNozzo," Gibbs said, his voice calmer. "I've got to go. I'll see you at work."

"Er…ok" Tony said before he was cut off. Why couldn't Tony remember anything? What about the rest of the team? He keyed in the number for Ziva and she picked up after one ring.

"Gibbs."

"Ziva, what did you do last night?"

"Er, I um, went and did a couple of laps at the local pool and then went to bed early. Why?"

"No matter, I was just asking."

"Is everything ok, Gibbs?"

"I'm fine, everything's fine. I'll see you at work." Gibbs said, not even giving Ziva a chance to answer before cutting her off. There was one last hope. He looked at the number pad of his cell for the third time and hoped that maybe this time he would strike gold.

"Tim McGee," came the answer.

"Tim, can you remember anything from last night?"

"Er, I think so."

Hope rose inside Gibbs, "What can you remember?"

"Well I got home and wrote a bit of a new chapter, then got something to eat before…"

"That's all, Tim. Hurry up and get to work. I don't want to see you late."

"Er, ok, Gibbs. Are you…"

Gibbs disconnected him with a click and lay back down on his bed. Was it a dream? Or was he going mad. His eyes drew wide as an idea hit him. There was one thing that would could prove him right; Ducky.

Gibbs stepped into the elevator and watched as the doors shut in front of him. He was taken aback as a red headed woman just made it before they closed.

"Jenny," Gibbs said, nodding at her.

"Jethro," she answered, a weird look in her eyes.

"What's wrong, Jen?" Gibbs asked, sensing she was worried about something.

"I received a strange call from DiNozzo this morning…are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Jen!" Gibbs said rather more sharply than he had meant to. Silence echoed around the elevator.

"It's just, Tony was worried about you, and now so am I," she said quietly, looking into Gibbs' eyes.

"Well there is no need for either of you to be worried."

"I can already see that you are on edge."

"You can put that down to a lack of sleep, Jen."

"You know you can talk to me. We may not have been as close recently, but I'd like to think you could still talk to me."

"I can and I will, when there is something to talk about."

"Just as long as you know I am here," she said, almost pleading with Gibbs to let her in.

Gibbs looked back at her, deep in the eyes. "Jen," he said, placing his hands on her shoulders, "there really is no reason for you to be worried. I'm fine."

Jen searched around in his eyes and, after letting out a sigh, looked away defeated. "Ok, you win. You know where my door is," she said stepping out the elevator as it opened out onto the NCIS floor. She looked back at Gibbs who remained still.

"You not coming out here?" she asked, the eyes of the rest of the team looking over from the bullpen in the background behind her. Gibbs could see the worried looks in their eyes.

"No, there's something I need to do first."

Jen's mouth opened in question, but the doors shut before she could utter a word. Gibbs let out a breath and leaned against the back wall. Was he really going crazy?

After a minute the doors opened again and Gibbs wandered out into Autopsy.

"Ducky?"

"He's not in yet," came a hurried voice from behind the furthest autopsy table.

"Palmer?" Gibbs questioned, confused, as he watched the assistant ME stand up from behind the metal table. Gibbs eyed him over as he noticed the creased shirt Palmer was wearing, only two of the buttons done up so that one side of the shirt hung lower that the other. Gibbs couldn't quite tell whether the autopsy gremlin was wearing trousers or not, but something told him it was the latter.

"Er, Palmer…" Gibbs said nodding to Palmer's shirt, where a black lace thong was slung over his shoulder. Palmer looked down at his shoulder and blushed a deep shape of magenta, hurriedly removing the thing and holding it behind his back.

"I'm sorry, Sir, I um…I er…"

Gibbs frowned at the use of 'Sir' but decided to let it go in favour of leaving the lab as quickly as possible.

"Palmer, was there a body brought in yesterday? A Petty Officer, mid-twenties?"

"No…no one was brought in yesterday," Palmer answered, confused.

"Thanks, Palmer, er, carry on," Gibbs said, backing away and retreating to the lift. Visions of Palmer in women's underwear flooded his mind and he closed his eyes in order to shut them out. Yes, he was definitely going mad.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five Chapter Five

Gibbs watched the doors open and close in front of him, his body refusing to move from within the elevator. The elevator was the safest place within the building; somehow it always made him feel _secure_. Countless times he had used the emergency switch, either when he wanted to talk to someone alone, or sometimes when he was on his own. It was a place where he could think things over, a place where he could make sense of things.

The doors opened again and this time he stepped out. Today, the elevator wasn't helping. No matter what people said, something had gone on yesterday, his gut told him. It had always served him well in the past, why should he abandon it now?

"Abbs?" he said, entering the dark lab.

"Yes, Gibbs," Abby said turning round to face him.

"Tell me I'm not mad."

"You're not mad."

"Then why can't anyone else remember anything?"

"We didn't want them too?"

"We?"

"Yes, me and the others."

"Abbs…?"

"Yes, Gibbs."

"What exactly are you?"

"We're vampires, Gibbs."

Any other day and Gibbs would have argued, but not today. Besides, he had heard stranger things. Hadn't he?

"Did you kill that Petty Officer?"

"Oh man, no! Do you think I'm a murderer?"

"No, not you. But if you're a vampire, don't you need blood?"

"Of course, but only from consenting donors."

"Donors? People donate their life to you?"

"Oh, not their lives, only small amounts of their blood."

"Then you don't take _all_ their blood?"

"No, that would be wrong. Even with vampires, taking a life is wrong."

"Then what happened to the Petty Officer?"

"That one, we can put down to a stupid risk."

"Risk?"

"We made the decision to allow someone younger than ever before to be 'converted'. Ultimately, it was the wrong decision."

"What happened?"

"He couldn't take it; the thirst for blood was too strong. He started with people that wouldn't be missed, you know, prostitutes, the homeless…but he escalated and started killing erratically. It was hard to keep up with him, covering up his tracks to stop us from being discovered." The anger seeped through in Abby's voice. The boy had obviously cost them a lot of time and effort.

"What happened when you found out he had murdered the Petty Officer."

"I waited for the DNA match for confirmation. There are a lot of pranksters, you know, staging 'vampiristic' killings. Once I had confirmed it was him, I consulted the others and we managed to track him down. It was sheer luck, really. Since the killings began he had abandoned his house, but we were alerted when last night he returned briefly."

"What happened?"

"You saw the house, you saw the blood."

"But it wasn't his. I saw the dog."

"An unfortunate sacrifice," Abby said, saddened, "Sometimes when consenting donors are scarce we can survive off animal blood. It's risky and not as strong as human blood, but it keeps us alive."

"Then why…"

"There are some types of blood, however, that can be referred to as 'poisonous' to our species. Blood from a dog is an example."

"So you fed him poison."

"There was no other way, Gibbs. I'm ashamed to admit we killed him, but he had to be stopped. Innocent people were being killed. There was no other way."

Gibbs looked at Abby, watching as her eyes filled with sadness. He walked over to her and stroked a stray hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear. He looked down at the silver chain around her neck and with one hand lifted the necklace from behind her top. He turned over his hand and let the vial rest on his palm.

"And this?"

"It's a vial of my blood. We keep it in case we ever need to initiate someone else. In case of emergency, say if all of us were wiped out apart from one of us. We are only of a small number."

Gibbs tucked the necklace back behind Abby's top and looked her in the eyes. All this information was new, although somehow, it felt as if he already knew. It was as if, he had always known that Abby was a vampire. It didn't scare him. Why should it? In fact it kind of fitted. Abby was still Abby, his dark beautiful angel. He looked at her know, she was putting so much trust in him. He would never tell of course, but how did she know that? She had just told him the biggest secret she could of, but then again she could just as easily make him forget. "Why me? Why can I remember and the others can't?"

"I wanted to give you a choice. It can be lonely keeping my secret to myself, not letting anyone see _me_."

Gibbs lifted a forefinger to her chin and caressed it gently. "I see you."

"I can make you forget. If you want, I can place fake memories, you won't remember anything that I just told you."

"Why would I want that?"

"Knowing what I just told you is not easy. It's a hard secret to bear."

"If there's one thing I can do Abbs, it's keep a secret."

"I would understand."

"You've been alone for too long, Abbs. Let me in."

Abby smiled at Gibbs and he felt his muscles relax. She really was beautiful when she smiled. She smiled from the heart; you could see it in her eyes. There was no one he would rather keep a secret for. He leaned in and smelled her aroma, the mucky scent of gunpowder. Sometimes he would come down here just for that smell. Even when she wasn't in the lab, the scent lingered in the air.

Abby reacted by moving her head to the side slightly; letting her cheek brush the soft bristles of his chin. Neither of them spoke, they just stood there; enjoying each other. Gibbs' finger traced along her collarbone before slowly trailing down her chest. It caught on her top and pulled at it, his finger between her breasts. Just as quickly the material slipped from his finger and he moved his hands swiftly round her waist, pulling her into him.

Their bodies aligned, thigh to thigh, stomach to stomach, chest to chest; everything _fitting_. Abby's cheek still rested against his. She placed her palms on his forearms and brushed them up his arms before running them across his chest and to his neck. The stood like that, holding each other. Abby moved, her head coming round, and she pressed her forehead to his, their lips now less than an inch apart. Neither of them moved, each of them daring the other to go first, to break the barrier. Abby teased first, her lips moving forwards and brushing his before she moved back. Gibbs smiled and when she went to do it again he moved to the side slightly so she missed, planting a small kiss at the side of his mouth. She laughed, her body shaking against his. She ducked forwards again, this time Gibbs letting her target. There lips connected and Abby moved her hands around Gibbs' neck her arms extending and wrapping around him.

"uh-hum"

There was a small cough behind them and they turned to find Tony and Ziva standing there. Tony's jaw was dropped but Ziva, although evidently just as shocked, had a twinkle in her eye.

"Wha…Abbs…Gibbs…you two…wha…?" Tony stuttered.

"Cat got your tongue, DiNozzo?" Gibbs said, the famous Gibbs stare making it way across the room.

"Er, no…its just…ow!" Tony flinched and brought his hand to his arm. "Ziva, why did you…"

"Come on Tony, we have those um, reports to finish."

"We don't have any reports to do, we haven't got any…oh, right, yes, those reports."

Ziva looked over at Gibbs, and for the shortest moment a flicker of thanks flashed across Gibbs' face. Ziva's grabbed Tony's arm and pulled him out the lab, a move which Tony didn't like. As uncomfortable as he felt, Gibbs and Abby? That was something he wouldn't mind seeing…

"Ow!" Tony said this time bringing his hand to the back of his head. "What did ya do that for?"

"I know _exactly_ what you were thinking, Tony. Now do I have to grab somewhere else to get you to come or are you ok to follow on your own?"

"I'm ok to follow," Tony said, blanching a little.

Gibbs and Abby heard the pinging that meant the elevator doors had closed and they looked back at each other.

"Trust Tony to…" Gibbs didn't allow her to finish the sentence before planting his lips on hers. He had waited long enough for this moment.

Abby smiled as she kissed him. Finally being able to tell someone felt like such a lift on her heart. And the fact that it was Gibbs made it so much better. The one person she loved most in the world was willing to accept her for what she truly was: a vampire.

THE END


End file.
